I had a couple med bills in a former state I used to live in. They are reporting to the CRAs, I sent Allianceone who is the CA for the hospital, a validation letter saying they wernt mine, likely ID theft, etc (basically just a pasted form validation letter i found on one of the credit sites). They respond with this letter: "Dr. Mr. Smith, Please verify if your birthday is 05-05-75 (not my real bd for posting purposes obviously but they entered my real bd on the letter),and that the last 4 digits of your SSN are 5678. If Yes, send a copy of affidavit of fraud or police report and this will be taken care of. If No, dispute with the credit bureau. We are also concerned with accounts that are disputed, and I have ordered the information you requested in your letterm hoever can not forward to you if this is not your ID. Thank you for your time. CSR's name, Allianceone" Now then, I am pretty sure it unwise to validate any data with them that they are asking for. Is the fact they are asking for it in form of a fraud affidavit or police report just smoke and mirrors or if I send one will they actually "take care of it" (not sure I like the vagueness of that statement). Not sure what to do. This is my first validation letter responce. Any help is very welcome!!
Since you alleged ID theft in the validation letter you sent them, the CA responded in an appropriate manner. If you think about it carefully, their response really isn't "smoke and mirrors" but common sense, given the allegation of ID theft in the request for validation. At this point, if you really want the validation, you've put yourself into a corner you won't get out of very easily. In general, it is not a good idea to just blindly copy-and-paste form letter templates from the Internet without seeing if they fit your situation and modifying them so that they do fit. For example, I would recommend that future requests for validation not include the business about ID theft, unless you have good and valid reason to believe that your ID has been stolen. You'll find that OC's and CA's will respond to you much as Allianceone did. FWIW, the Federal Trade Commission maintains a web site devoted to dealing with ID theft. The URL is <http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/>. The site includes an ID theft affidavit form at <http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/affidavit.htm>. Many companies and the three major CRA's endorse and/or accept the form when disputing accounts due to ID theft. HTH, John
That is indeed wise advise. Thank you. But for the purposes of getting rid of this should I just give them the affidavot they request and assume they will indeed take care of it through deletion? Since I am assuming they also figure if I am over 1000 miles away it is not too likely Id have visited their local hospital on two seperate occasions. thanks
Re: Re: Allianceone replies to VL Help 1*Please verify if your birthday is 05-05-75 2*and that the last 4 digits of your SSN are 5678. 3*I have ordered the information you requested in your letter I however can not 4*forward to you if this is not your ID. 5*Now then, I am pretty sure it unwise to validate any data with them that they are asking for. 6*Is the fact they are asking for it in form of a fraud affidavit or police report just smoke and mirrors 7*if I send one will they actually "take care of it" dp1969 ================== 1&2*Did you ask them when your birthday was and what your SS# is? You already knew that didn't you. I thought you had asked for proof of the debt. Does this look like proof of it to you? 3-4*I haven't seen anything in the law saying you had to give them such info to get a debt proven. 5*Smart as sticking your neck under a guillotine 6*Or a trap to snare you! 7*Probably in a way you won't like. The END ************************* LB 59
Re: Re: Allianceone replies to VL Help I have to to agree with this and say I don't relish the idea of confirming any data with a CA. However is there a way of giving them their affidavit wityhout surrendering any personal data? What is the best step from here? Sorry to seem so ignorant about it but I was expecting them to probably send me some cheesy printout. But understand the earlier post about using the validation letter that mentioned ID theft. But now that I am in the situation as such, where is the best place to go from here to get these off? Would giving them the affidavit no matter what info is or is not on it validate it to them per the way they have it worded? Again any help is appreciated!
Re: Re: Allianceone replies to VL Help Bump... am really needing some input if its just advisable to send a 2nd validation letter or to go with a fraud affidavit. thanks again!
Re: Re: Allianceone replies to VL Help Bump again. Sorry everyone, but Id really appreciate from some with past experience if it is prudent to download the fraud affidavit supplied by link earlier in this thread, fill it out and send it back, or to ignore this letter from them and send a second validation request. Havr fraud affidavits to a CA been useful in expediting deletion from the CA or is the CA just looking for me to confirm my SSN and birth date so they can verify the guy they are gonna start sending this bill to? Anyone, please... thank you!
Re: Re: Allianceone replies to VL Help The best thing you can do is to realize that you goofed up (obviously you know that now) and do nothing at all. Just how do you imagine you can send them a fraud report from a police department without filing a false statement to a police officer and not spend some time in the pokey? That is a serious charge indeed. You can't very well write them and tell them you were using some letter you found on the internet. That would make you look stupid. Best to leave them alone for a couple of months and send them a decent validation demand.
Re: Re: Allianceone replies to VL Help I definitely understand I goofed. However if I needn't file a police report and merely fill out a generic fraud report will that help? It's not a police report so I am technically filing a false report with authorities. I'd kind of like to try to get it out of the way if possible as I may be moving back up to that area in a couple months and I really don't want to have to be disputing it in an area where I very well could have used that hospital. I managed to remove that old address from my credit files and have very little if no other evidence that shows I ever lived there briefly. Thanks for the suggestion. It seems thats what I will ultimately have to do baring any other suggestions that seem realistic.
Re: Re: Allianceone replies to VL Help I definitely understand I goofed. However if I needn't file a police report and merely fill out a generic fraud report will that help? It's not a police report so I am technically not filing a false report with authorities. I'd kind of like to try to get it out of the way if possible as I may be moving back up to that area in a couple months and I really don't want to have to be disputing it in an area where I very well could have used that hospital. I managed to remove that old address from my credit files and have very little if no other evidence that shows I ever lived there briefly. Thanks for the suggestion. It seems thats what I will ultimately have to do baring any other suggestions that seem realistic.
Re: Re: Allianceone replies to VL Help Waiting a couple of months is the most realistic thing to do. If you do what you are planning to do you will probably make matters much worse.
